Speed Demon
by iammemyself
Summary: Sonic the Hedgehog descends into Hell, ignoring everything he's ever had. Hero becomes villain and friend becomes enemy as he continues down the path of darkness.
1. Out of the Darkness Comes

1.

Have you ever felt like you could conquer the world?

Achieve all your dreams?

Like you live in a pool of sunlight that never fades and never grows cold?

Like you could live forever?

I feel like that every day.

It's not a common feeling, I know. It's hard to get to for some people.

I've never had that problem.

It's hard to have problems when the world passes you by in an endless, colourless blur that somehow has shape and meaning while it speeds by too fast for the eye to  
capture. I have been supersonic my whole life.

I am speed.

Speed is what makes me who I am. Makes me confident and bold. Tell you the truth, maybe I wouldn't be like this if I weren't fast. Maybe I'd be just like you.

Not saying there's anything wrong with you…but I'd rather be me.

As would a disturbing amount of people…

All this running makes a guy hungry. I stop at my place for a bite to eat. No, I'm not having chili dogs. Once I found out what was in hotdogs I stopped eating  
them. I stopped eating meat altogether. It's kind of creepy knowing what that stuff is made out of. I'm sort of related to pigs, in a way (because I'm not a wild  
hedgehog I'm a step up in the gene pool), and that's kinda scary knowing that I could've been bologna if things had gone wrong.

So yeah, I don't eat meat anymore. 'cept eggs, those I'm okay with. And I am in fact making myself an egg salad sandwich. With barbecue sauce.

If ya haven't tried it, don't knock it.

No, seriously. It's good.

I make myself another sandwich and wander outside. I don't like staying in the house for too long. Makes me feel closed in. It's nice out. Sunny and warm, but not  
too warm, if you know what I mean.

I'm eating my sandwich, trying not to drop egg salad on my sneakers, when all of a sudden the temperature drops.

Like it goes arctic style.

The sun goes out.

I drop my sandwich.

I don't know where it went.

There doesn't seem to be ground anymore. I don't think there is. There's a funny feeling in my head like when I go on the Gravitron. Like I'm weightless.

God it's cold. The hedgehog does not like the cold.

It's getting colder.

What happened?

And where's my sandwich? I'm still indecently hungry.

"I've finally found you."


	2. Hell Itself

2.

Huh?

Where'd that voice come from?

"You didn't think you could hide, did you?"

"What in the hell-"

"Exactly."

I'm really confused right now

If it's possible it just got colder. I feel clammy and dirty.  
"Sonic."

"That's my name, speed's my game. You wanna come out and play?"

"No, little hedgehog. It's MY game."

"Are you organizing a race or something? 'Cause I never lost a race that was fair, you know." I try to look around but I'm standing in total black and it's kind of freaking me out. I feel like my eyeballs are falling out from trying to see. "Hey, no fair startin' when I can't see ya!"

Then right in front of me comes this blue glowy thing, and God is it scary. It takes a lot to scare me, and this thing does the job a bit too well. It hurts my eyes to look at it.

It's cold.

Something inside me seems to squirm and writhe. I don't know what it is.

I feel strange.

"I made you, hedgehog. Now you are of age. Now you are ready."

"I don't think that's true, since I am not a an uh whatever you're supposed to be thingumabob."

"I am Hell itself."

"Uh-huh. Tell me another one, Stephen King. If I'm standing in front of Hell there would be FIRE."

"Tell me, hedgehog what is your greatest fear?"

"Water, stupid. Everyone knows that. My DOG knows that. And I don't have a dog."

"What if Hell was your greatest fear?"

"It ain't. Forgetting how to program the DVR, now THAT scares me."

"I know your greatest fear, Sonic.

"The one you've never told anyone."

Gulp.

This isn't looking so good.

How does Mr. Pilot Light here know about that?

"You're afraid of being alone."

Damn.

Busted.

"So you have a choice. You can do as I ask which is really not that hard or you can stay here for eternity."

"I'll stay here, thanks. I don't wanna know what a walking blob of mist wants me to do."

"You're bluffing."

"Try me."

"If you insist."

And it disappears.

The darkness presses on me.

It's gonna go away any second.

Right?

Why isn't it going away?

Count to three.

One...

Two...

Three...

Shit.

Still there.

Alright, I'm scared now.

"Hey! Hell itself! Ya just gonna leave me here?"

Oh my God, time is stretching on forever. I can't do this. Someone will come for me.

No one's coming.

It's so dark.

It's so cold.

Oh God.

"I give! What do you want?"

The glow returns, blinding me. But there's some thing there now, and it helps banish the fear. Okay, so it's an evil uh thingification of Hell, but it's all I get.

"All you have to do is close your eyes."

I don't want to.

I'm afraid that when I open them it will be gone, and I'll be alone again.

But I do it anyway.

I open my eyes when the sun warms me.

I'm shaking.

God I was scared.

Never been that scared before.

'cept the time I almost drowned.

But here I am standing in the middle of Emerald Hill, in once piece, same as before.

What.

The.

Hell.


	3. Tails Helps Sonic

3.

I'm a bit shaky after this l'il episode, so I decide to stroll on down to Tails' place. Tails cheers me up without even trying. He's just so darn happy all the time.

Only when I'm on his doorstep do I remember that I'm still starving, but too late now. Hopefully my stomach stays quiet while I chat with my bro.

He's well, I dunno what he's doing. Something with a really really REALLY small screwdriver. And a pair of pliers. A really really REALLY small pair of pliers. And glue. A really really REALLY-

Just kidding. It's just a tube of glue. Regular size.  
"What're you up to, pal?"  
Tails looks up. "I'm making a model."  
"With a screwdriver? And glue?"  
"I made it myself."  
I love this kid. Only Tails would make a model for himself that he could glue and screw together.  
Still, even for Tails that's a bit weird.  
"Um...why?"  
"It's going to be a prototype for something I'm building."  
Now I feel stupid again. Of COURSE he's building a model. He always builds one before he goes full-size.  
"What is it you're making, buddy?"  
"Not telling!"  
I cross my arms and roll my eyes. "As usual."  
He laughs and sticks his tongue out at me.  
"Aww, poor Sonic wants to know what I'm doing."  
"Damn right I do. I don't want to be caught off guard the day you build a device to shut the TV off. How will I live without my soaps?"  
He starts laughing pretty hard at that. The idea of me watching soaps is pretty ridiculous. I don't even watch TV that often. Takes too long. 'specially dramas. If you ever catch me watching a drama I've probably lost my mind. God those drag on forever.  
"Yes, your soaps. I forgot how attached you are to them."  
"And keep on forgetting, Tails. I don't want it to get out that Sonic the Hedgehog is obssessed with 'The Young and the Restless'."  
"Nothing would ruin your reputation more, Sonic."  
"Well...I can think of one thing..."  
"What's that?"  
"If someone caught me reading."  
He practically goes into hysterics over that one. I don't read very much either. Not because I'm stupid or can't. Because it takes too long. Y'know all the teen best-sellers? Them things are all eight bajillion pages long. How many would I have to read to get to the point. I stick to comic books. And yes, there is a such thing as an intelligent comic book. Go look it up. There's a whole book on them.  
No, seriously. Go look it up. Right now.  
It's called 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die.  
(I haven't read it)  
When Tails learns how to breathe he puts his screwdriver down and looks up at me.  
"So what do I owe the honour of your visit?"  
"Nothin', I'm just bored."  
"Aw, darn it Sonic."  
"What?"  
"Why do you only come to see me when you're bored?"  
"Because. Now entertain me." I sit in his swively chair and put my feet on the computer desk.  
His laptop falls on the floor.  
"Oh shit."  
I bend over to pick it up but he's already snatched it off the floor. "Geez, Sonic, watch where you point those things! How many times do you have to knock this over before you learn? Do you WANT to lose all of our childhood photos? How on earth will I figure out all those blueprints all over again? And what about that movie about the headless rubber chicken? What would I do if I lost that?"  
"Um...well...sorry, bud. Is it okay?"  
"Oh, I took everything out of it yesterday. It's just a laptop case now."  
I throw my hands up in the air. "Way to freak me out, Tails. Over a piece of plastic."  
"It's aluminum, actually. This used to be a MacBook Pro."  
I slam my feet on the floor and plant my hands on the desk. "You mean the computer I just bought you?"  
"Yes."  
"You took it apart already?"  
"Yes."  
"I gave it to you three days ago!"  
"And in those three days you knocked it on the floor eight times! The only option I had left was to take it apart!"  
"Okay, you win. But I'm never buying you a computer again. You always take them apart."  
"But...but Sonic...I put it in the Tornado..."  
"How on Earth is your chicken movie gonna be preserved in there? You always crash that thing!"  
"The chicken movie? I own it on DVD, nothing's going to happen to it."  
He's being literal today. Go figure. Sometimes he makes me think before I talk. Not my usual modus operandi.  
(Sorry for using latin there...won't do it again...)  
"Why did you put the computer in the Tornado if you might not get it back?"  
"It's going to be pretty hard for you to knock it on the floor in there."  
"Wanna play Twisted Metal with me?"  
"Are you going to let me be the clown this time?"  
"Of course not."  
He makes a face and gets up anyway. "Fine, fine, I'll entertain you."  
"Took you long enough."  
"Shut up."  
"Make me."  
"Don't make me make you. You won't like it."  
The power goes out.  
"Tails?  
"Bud?"  
He's not answering me.  
"He cannot follow you here."  
Oh boy oh boy. My new best friend.  
"You wanna light a match or something? Kinda dark."  
The blue misty Hell Itself thingy reappears. I'm kinda wondering what it wants. I haven't done anything in the last ten minutes that merits my going to Hell, right?  
"I think you should stay away from that boy, Sonic."  
"In your dreams, fogface."  
"He might have an...accident."  
I clench my fists. If you wanna make me mad, threaten Tails.  
"You better not touch him or you're getting your ass handed to you."  
After I say it I realize it doesn't make a lot of sense. This thing has no ass. It has no nothing, and I can't really thrash a bunch of floating water.  
"I'm sure you will. Just stay away from him, if you know what's good for you."  
I'm left in the dark again.  
One...  
Two...  
Three...  
Four...  
Five...  
"Goddammnit!"  
Someone turned the lights back on and now my eyes have been burned out of my head.  
"Sonic?"  
"Yeah?"  
"What are you doing?"  
I squint at him.  
"What do you mean, what am I doing? Where were you? Why didn't you answer when I called you?"  
"You didn't call me."  
"Oh really. 'cause I remember calling you."  
"You were just standing there. You were all frozen and you wouldn't move. I...I was scared, Sonic."  
Thanks, Tails. Now I feel like a total jerk.  
"Oh...sorry, buddy. I guess I just...uh...spazzed for a minute."  
"No kidding. You, like, super-spazzed."  
"Tails?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Don't say like like that. It's scary."  
"Scarier than what you were just doing?"  
"Like eight million times scarier."  
I look at him. He does look kinda spooked.  
"On second thought...you using slang at all is scary."  
He laughs and we go into the house. 


	4. Amy Does and Doesn't

4.

After we play for a while my stomach reminds me about the egg salad sandwich I dropped what feels like centuries ago, so we get up and make dinner. Tails makes scrambled eggs while I make potato salad. Between the two of us we usually end up with something edible.  
Okay, no, he can cook and so can I. We only burn things when we go outside and the oven is on. Like Tuesday, when we were making shepherd's pie and I was bored from waiting (for a grand total of 5 minutes), so I told him we should play hide-and-seek while we were waiting, and I couldn't find him because he was in a tree. By the time we got back there was nothing left of it.  
We don't have to put this in the oven though, but I do put the potato salad in the freezer. You're supposed to eat it cold! And I couldn't wait for it to cool down in the fridge man, I was starving! I was so hungry I was eating the potatoes while I was making the salad.  
"Sonic, you wanna leave some or you just wanna have 'em mashed?"  
"I'm hungry."  
"So am I, but you don't see me slurping up these half-finished eggs, do you?"  
He had a point.  
Sort of.  
The potatoes WERE cooked.  
To appease the poor soul I stop eating them and finish putting things in them instead, then I chuck them in the freezer. Of course the bowl tips over because I wasn't very nice with it and the salad spills all over the shelf.  
"Oh Sonic. When will you learn."  
"Shut up, Tails."  
At times like these being fast is real convenient. Those potatoes are still boiling hot, but I can pick them up so fast I can't feel them.  
We sit down and eat the other half of dinner, and with a little hot sauce the scrambled eggs are perfect. I'm eating them pretty quick and Tails is talking. I bet you don't know this, but Tails likes to talk. He'll talk all day if you let him. It's just people don't usually care what he has to say. True, some of what he says goes over my head, but I do try.  
Sometimes I worry about him. Sometimes I feel kind of...I don't know...itchy inside, like I have to do something to make this kind of tingly feeling go away. I know what it is, and what I have to do to make it go away, but luckily it doesn't last too long usually.  
It's wanderlust.  
See, Dr. Eggman's been on the down low lately, and we haven't heard a peep out of him. For a long time we were always on the go, always going somewhere new, always doing something different, meeting new people.  
We've been here at home for a long time though. The longer I stay here the more closed in I feel. It's hard to stay sometimes. I know that if that feeling gets too bad I'll have to leave, and I don't know if Tails would want to come with me. He has a lot of things he's happy doing here.  
I don't know if he should come with me.  
Maybe it's time he got some new friends.  
Yeah, we have friends, but they aren't like best friends or anything. They're more like part of the team, y'know? Knux doesn't live anywhere near here, Amy ...well...I'd rather she didn't hang around anyway...and those are the two closest to us.  
"SONIC!"  
Speak of the devil.  
Why do we leave the door unlocked again?  
Amy appears out of nowhere, as usual, and tries to crush me, as usual, and I shove her away, (you guessed it) as usual.  
"Get off me, Amy."  
"But Sonic...I haven't seen you in SO LONG..."  
"I saw you yesterday at this exact same time! How long could that possibly feel to you!"  
"It feels like FOREVER! Will you hurry up and marry me already?"  
"Amy, I'm not going to marry you. I told you that yesterday. And the day before. And the day before."  
"But not the day before THAT! There's still a chance!"  
"Yeah, a snowball's chance in Hell! Now stop pulling on my hair! I like it the way it is, thanks!"  
She stops pulling on my hair and stands back. Only a little. Like she's afraid I'm going to run.  
If she backs up just three centimetres I can get by her without knocking over the table...  
"I don't think Sonic wants to talk to you right now, Amy. Would you mind leaving for a bit?"  
Geez, Tails, that was the understatement of the millennium.  
"No! I haven't seen Sonic since yesterday and this time I'm not gonna leave until he says he's going to marry me!"  
"You're gonna be here for the rest of your life then." I realize after I say it that whether I marry her or not (definitely not), it still evens out to her not leaving.  
"Well, that's the point of marriage, you know. To be together forever." She's got her arms around me again and that far-away look in her eyes.  
"AMY! LET GO OF ME!"  
"I'll make a deal with you."  
I am instantly suspicious. "What kind of deal?"  
"Do something for me and I'll leave."  
"No you won't."  
"I promise."  
"What do I have to do?"  
"Give me a hug and I'll leave."  
Oh my God. I can't imagine - wait - yes I can...  
"And what if I don't?"  
"I won't leave. Ever."  
She sits down on the couch and adjusts her skirt.  
The problem with Amy is she is likely to keep her word and never leave. But I also don't want her to think she can keep coming back and asking me to do things so that she'll leave.  
"And you'll never do it again?"  
"Do what again, Sonic?"  
"Ask me to do something so you'll leave."  
"No. It's a special day for me, that's all."  
"And what day is that?" I'm pretty sure it's not her birthday. Yes, Amy makes me uncomfortable, but I'm not so much of a jerk that I don't drop by and wish her a happy birthday.  
Although I do have to disappear on mine.  
I take Tails with me, of course.  
"It's the anniversary of the day I met you. And you rescued me."  
You can imagine how she looks, right? She's got her adoring girlfriend pose.  
"...and you held me in your arms..."  
Gag me.  
"Uh...calm down, Amy. That was a long time ago."  
"I know...but I relive it every year..."  
I don't want her in my living room fawning over me.  
I'm going to have to hug her.  
I don't have to think about it while I'm doing it.  
"Okay, Amy. But you'd better not do this again. Or I'm going to have to move suddenly."  
"Oh no, Sonic, don't do that! Please don't do that!"  
"Well, if you're going to stalk me even more than you already do..."  
"I won't, Sonic, I promise!"  
"Well...well, come here, then."  
She looks at me.  
Tails is looking at me.  
She stands up.  
And heads for the door.  
"Uh...where are you going?"  
"Sonic, I know you don't really want to...it's enough to know that you would...to make me happy...you're such a gentleman!"  
She blows me a kiss and leaves.  
"Well...that was...weird..."  
I don't say anything.  
Would I have done it to make her happy?  
Or would it just have been to make her go away?  
Either way I feel kind of bad.  
"Sonic?"  
I don't answer him.  
Maybe I am a jerk after all.  
I leave the kitchen and sit on the couch. I don't like this feeling. I'm doubting myself, and my motivations. I don't usually do that. Usually I don't care about hurting Amy's feelings because she doesn't really seem to care. She just comes back.  
Would she really wait forever?  
Should I really lay it down?  
I don't want to hurt her feelings...but I'm not interested in her.  
Why am I thinking about this?  
It's always been cut-and-dry before. I run, she chases me. Been that way since I met her.  
I'm going to go talk to her.  
It's time.  
Time to break her heart.


	5. Feeling a Little Nuts

5.

Before I go to her place I go out and run for a while. I need to think about this a little. I feel bad. I don't like that she follows me, and obsesses about me, and that she just shows up at my house when I don't want her to. But still...  
...she's my friend. And even if she's not my best friend like Tails is, I know that she can drop the craziness and be a good one when the sitch calls for it.  
After I'm finished running I go to her place and just stand outside.  
I don't feel better about this.  
I should. I've had time to think about it, to think about what I'll say and how I'll say it.  
I don't know.  
I don't know what I'm going to do or say.  
And I feel kind of weird. Kind of dizzy. I don't think I'm getting sick. I haven't been near anybody lately, and I know Tails hasn't either.  
Something's not right.  
I'm just standing there, and standing there, and it's getting worse. I kind of want to sit down. Sometimes when I run it does take a minute for me to catch up with myself, but it's never felt like this before. Usually it's just a massive adrenaline rush and I can deal with that okay. I don't know what this is.  
I'm still standing there.  
The door opens.  
"Sonic?"  
She looks surprised.  
"Uh...hey."  
"What are you doing here?"  
"I...uh..."  
"Are you okay? You don't look very good."  
"I feel kinda...I don't know..."  
"Is Eggman back?"  
"No...no, I don't know...I don't..."  
I can't see.  
"Careful."  
I open my eyes and I'm sitting in her living room. It's so damn pink. SHE'S pink. Don't you get enough pink at some point?  
"Sonic, what's going on?"  
"What?"  
"You fainted."  
"I did not."  
"You so did. I just had to carry you into the living room."  
Amy might be a little on the nutso side, but she's not a liar.  
"Oh. Thanks."  
"You're kind of light for your age. Are you sick or something?"  
"I don't think so..."  
"I know! You're anemic, silly!"  
"I'm what?"  
"You don't get enough iron in your diet, since you went vegetarian!"  
Well, that WOULD explain the dizziness and the fainting...but why would it catch up to me all at once?  
"I guess that's it then..."  
"You should probably take iron supplements."  
"That's a good idea."  
She sits down next to me and looks at me closely.  
"On second thought...you're acting really weird. Are you getting enough sleep?"  
I just look at her.  
There's a funny feeling in my head.  
I'm still kind of dizzy.  
I kiss her.  
When I pull away she's just staring at me like I changed my hair.  
"What?"  
"Why...why did you do that, Sonic?"  
"Didn't you want me to?"  
(Why did I do that?)  
"Well, of course I did...but I...I didn't expect..."  
"Since when do I ever do things when you expect me to?"  
(What's wrong with me? Why did I do that?)  
"Sonic, I just...I don't know...could you...could you..."  
(Is she going to ask me to do it again?)  
"...leave?"  
I kiss her again.  
She pushes me off.  
"Sonic, I told you to leave!"  
She looks really scared.  
I back away and fall off the couch. I bang my head on the floor and everything goes dark for a second.  
"Sonic?"  
I'm so dizzy.  
"Are you okay?"  
She's bending over me. She's scared. I'm scared.  
I don't feel right.  
I grab her and roll on top of her.  
She screams.  
I back off and I'm feeling really sick now and I honestly have no clue what's going on right now, and I'm feeling really dizzy and I think I'm falling and what was I going to do oh shit I don't want to think about it

"He just started acting really strange."  
"What was he doing?"  
"I don't...I don't want to say."  
"Hm."  
"Is he sick?"  
"I don't think so. He was fine this morning. And yesterday. He hasn't been going anywhere that I know of."  
"Is he getting anemic?"  
"Possibly. On second thought...he was acting weird earlier...he just froze in place."  
"What do we do?"  
"I don't know."  
She went and got Tails?  
Where am I?  
I open my eyes and I'm back on the couch. Amy and Tails are in the dining room. Tails has one hand over one of Amy's. She looks really scared.  
I fainted again?  
I feel really sick.  
It's hard to explain, though. Like I feel sick, but it isn't like any sickness I've ever had. I don't have a headache, nothing hurts, and I don't want to throw up.  
I just feel...sick.  
"Hey."  
It's Tails.  
Of course he would know I'm awake.  
"Heya bud."  
"How are you, Sonic?"  
I know what the real question is. What he really means.  
He's really asking, 'Is there something you're not telling me?'  
"I...I don't know, pal. I just...I don't know."  
"You're not sick, are you?"  
"I don't know! I already told you, I DON'T KNOW!"  
"Calm down, Sonic. I'm trying to help you."  
I know that. And I yelled at him anyway.  
"I'm sorry."  
I can't look at her.  
I don't want to think about her.  
I don't want to think about what almost could have happened.  
"Look at me, Sonic."  
I can't.  
"Sonic."  
"I...I can't..."  
"Sonic."  
"Amy..."  
"Look at me."  
I don't want to.  
When I do, I'm reaching for her all of a sudden, and Tails is doing something horribly painful to my shoulder, and I grit my teeth and stop.  
"What the-"  
"Vulcan nerve pinch."  
"You're a nerd."  
"Thank me later. And don't look at Amy."  
I'm gonna thank him later. What was I doing?  
"Amy, I don't know what it is, but there is definitely something wrong with Sonic. And he might be anemic, but that's not the real problem."  
Tails helps me sit. I'm still dizzy. That's the only really physical thing wrong with me right now. I don't know where the rest of it is coming from, or what it is.  
"I'm gonna take you home, Sonic. Do you think you're okay to walk?"  
"Yeah, I can walk." I stand up and the world goes dark.  
"How did you like that, my little hedgehog?"  
Not again.  
Not right now.  
"I don't wanna talk to you right now. I just wanna go home."  
"It doesn't matter what you want. It matters what I want."  
"Who cares what you want? You're nothing! You're a big floating piece of nothing!"  
"Don't you care, Sonic? Don't you care what happens to your friends?"  
I hate this thing. Hate hate hate it.  
"Don't you care about what you almost did to-"  
"Shut up! Shut up! You made me do that, didn't you! I would never ever do anything like that, and you went and- and now-"  
"She won't bother you anymore, will she?"  
"Yeah, but now things are fucked up! She won't trust me anymore! How'm I supposed to lead people if they don't trust me!"  
"You lead through fear, of course."  
"I don't want people to be afraid of me!"  
"That...is about to change."  
I feel terrible.  
I think I'm gonna faint again.


	6. Tails Leaves

Tails Leaves

When I wake up I still don't feel good. I still feel sick and dizzy. It's dark but I can see Tails. He's sitting in a chair. He has his computer in his lap. He must have gotten another one.  
He looks really strange with his face all lit up from below like that.  
"Feeling better?"  
"No."  
"I don't see anything that explains your behaviour...unless you're suddenly developing another personality. But I think you're too stable for that."  
I put my hands over my face.  
Then I realize the bed I'm lying in isn't mine.  
"Bud...we still at Amy's place?"  
"Yeah."  
"She tell you what happened?"  
"No...but I'm a pretty good guesser."  
"I didn't mean it, you know."  
"Of course I do."  
"I don't know what's going on."  
"I believe you."  
I'm just lying there and Tails is just doing his thing on his computer. After a while the typing noises stop. I think he's asleep.  
I get up.  
I go downstairs.  
She's up too.  
"Amy?"  
She doesn't look at me. She's on her couch, wrapped up in a pink blanket, staring at the flashing television in the dark.  
"I...I'm really sorry, Ames. I didn't mean...I don't know what happened...I didn't mean it."  
"Sonic..."  
She sounds like she's gonna cry.  
"...if you really didn't want me around that much...you could have told me."  
I hold the newel post with all my strength. I feel like I'm gonna fall down.  
"You didn't have to scare me like that. I would have backed off. I wouldn't have liked it, but I would've."  
"I'm sorry."  
"Why didn't you say anything?"  
"I didn't want to hurt your feelings."  
"And that wouldn't?"  
"Amy...I didn't mean to do that. That wasn't me!"  
"Of course it was you. You're Sonic the Hedgehog. You're always in control of everything."  
She says it bitterly, and I know something has been lost between us.  
"Amy..."  
"Just go away," she says. "Just go away."  
I stand there.  
"Leave me alone."  
"I owe you something."  
"I don't care."  
"I'll mean it."  
"I don't care."  
I walk across the room and stand in front of her. She doesn't look at me.  
I sit down next to her.  
She doesn't look at me.  
I give her the hug I owe her. I guess 'cause it's dark is why I'm not attacking her right now.  
She hugs me back.  
She's crying.  
"Sonic, what's wrong with you? Why did you do that to me? Sonic, I'm scared."  
I can't hold anything back. She has to know it's really me. So I say it:  
"So am I, Amy. So am I."

I lie there for a long, long time. I'm trying to think of what's going on. I know that the creepy misty thing is doing this to me, but how? And why?  
And more importantly, how do I fight it?  
After a while Tails realizes he's fallen asleep on his computer again and he closes it and climbs into bed next to me. Don't think anything bad now. It's just a comfort thing, all right? He's not gay and neither am I. We're brothers, not lovers.  
"Sonic?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Has anything...strange happened to you lately?"  
"Yeah."  
"You wanna tell me about it?"  
"Not right now. Go to sleep."  
"You should probably tell me soon. Before it gets any worse."  
"I will. Now go to sleep."  
"Sure you don't wanna tell me now?"  
"Sure I'm sure. Now sleep." Then I realize he may not want to.  
"You ain't scared I'm gonna hurt you, are ya bro?"  
"Not really. I don't think you'd do that, no matter what happened."  
"Good. You can go to sleep now, then."  
He laughs and does just that.

When I wake up I feel kind of lousy. Like I have a cold. But I don't, that's the problem. Wish I did, that'd make me feel better about the whole thing.  
Tails is gone. Probably skipped off somewhere with his computer, as usual. Never stops doing that. He should get some friends.  
Then maybe he won't follow me around anymore.  
I get up slowly. I thought I'd be dizzier. I was sure dizzy last night, damnit, couldn't even stand on my own.  
Even if I don't like his behaviour so much, I kind of need to know where the little bugger went.  
For a second I debate yelling, since this is Amy's place and all and she might be sleeping, but then I remember all the times she leapt on me when I didn't want her to, and I decide I don't care.  
"TAILS!"  
Tails pops his head out from under the bed.  
"What the Hell are you doing under there?"  
"I dropped my pen. It rolled under the bed."  
I roll my eyes at him.  
"And you had to get UNDER the bed to get it out?"  
"Yeah."  
"You're a nerd."  
"Thanks."  
I stand up and stretch a bit. I feel kind of tight. I think I'll go run for a while.  
I head out, ignoring Amy, who is on the couch. She's reading a book. It's probably a pink book on princesses or fairies or something like that. She's still wrapped in her pink blanket.  
I feel bad again for last night. I have to shake it off. It was an accident. It was my new acquaintance that did it, not me. I had nothing to do with it.  
The running is different today. I feel strong and powerful like never before. It's easier to see where I'm going, since everything is clearer. Hm. Maybe I should faint more often.  
I just run and run and run, and by the time I get home it's late. I don't know how late. I think I've been running all day though, since it's dark out. Tails is sitting on the porch with his computer.  
"Oh, there you are. I was beginning to wonder where you went."  
"Does it matter?"  
"Of course it matters, Sonic. I might need to find you, that's all."  
"Why would you need to do that?"  
"I don't know...Eggman's been pretty quiet."  
"Listen, buddy, if Egghead does stick his moustache into anything, I think I'd know about it first, don't you? I mean, it's kind of hard to find things out if you just sit around all day."  
(Whoa.  
What did I just say?)  
Tails looks kind of hurt and kind of confused. He doesn't really know what to think. But he stays calm.  
"I'm sorry if I bothered you, Sonic. And I'm sorry that you think I'm just sitting around all day. I know it kind of looks like I am, but I'm actually working on something really important right now."  
"Sure you are. Like what? A pen you can use in space?"  
(Shit.  
I didn't mean to say that.  
But if I didn't mean to say it...why did I?)  
"They already have one of those. But Sonic...I know you weren't feeling well yesterday, and maybe you feel the same way today, but you-"  
"I feel fine. And I felt fine yesterday."  
"You fainted. Three times."  
"Maybe I did it on purpose."  
Tails closes his computer and walks away.  
"Where do you think you're going?"  
"Leave me alone, Sonic. I don't know what's wrong with you, but I can't talk to you if you're going to treat me that way."  
"This is the thanks I get, you little twit? For sheltering you and taking you in and all that mushy shit? You walk away from me when I'm talking to you?"  
"I'll come back when you calm down."  
"I AM CALM!"  
"No, you're not. Now let me be."  
He thinks he can walk away from me?  
And get away with it?  
Who does he think he is?  
I grab him by the shoulder.  
"Don't you dare walk away from me."  
"Let me go!"  
"Turn around."  
"Sonic...Sonic, you're hurting me!"  
"Maybe you deserve it."  
My voice is low, and gravelly.  
It's different.  
(Why?)  
"Sonic, let me leave."  
(Leave?)  
I let go of his arm.  
He starts running.  
(Shit.)


	7. Alone in the Dark

7.

Alone in the Dark

I've been lying on this bed for who knows how long.  
Just staring at the ceiling.  
Thinking.  
Trying not to think.  
Failing at both.  
Hard to do that.  
But I am.  
My head hurts though, from doing it.  
My stomach hurts too, because I ran all day and didn't eat anything. That's just stupidity on my part.  
I can't believe that Tails is gone.  
He left.  
He didn't come back.  
Why was I treating him like shit? He didn't do anything wrong. He was just worried. No crime in that.  
Now I'm worried.  
He didn't tell me where he was going. Or when he'd be coming back.  
Or if.  
I don't know what to do.  
Honestly, it's all I can do not to freak out completely.  
I know that dark thing is doing this to me. But I don't know how to fight it. It seems to be able to control me at will. It makes me do things and say things I would never dream of doing.  
Okay, maybe I sometimes think about mouthing Tails off. But I never actually do it. Everybody thinks bad things about other people sometimes.  
But how do I fight something I can't see? Can't touch? Can't find? I only see it when it wants me to.  
What if I ask to see it?  
Will it come?  
"Your wish is my command."  
I'm floating in nothingness. I don't like that, but I'm in that dark place again and I'm scared if I try to stand up I'll just fall and fall and fall. I have to strain to look around but I can't see it. I'm starting to panic. Knowing that no one is there to help me, that I'm alone in my room and no one will care if I don't wake up, it makes my chest tighten so bad...  
"Where are you?"  
It appears right next to my face. It of course takes advantage of me and 'stands' while I'm forced to 'lie down'.  
"You called?"  
"Stop doing this to me!"  
"I'm not doing a thing to you. You're doing it all by yourself."  
"Why would I do those things? What kind of guy do you take me for? I would never talk to Tails like that, not ever!"  
"And yet you did."  
"NO! It was YOU!"  
"I can assure you it was not. Now I have more important things to attend to, little hedgehog, so cease bothering me. My work with you is concluded."  
It vanishes.  
It leaves me alone.  
I'm counting.  
I'm counting.  
My number is getting very high.  
It's so hard to breathe...  
I can't take this anymore! Is it going to send me back or what?  
Fuck.  
I'm going to panic. I am literally going to lose it.  
Sonic the Hedgehog is going to lose it.  
The terrible, jolting panic is gripping me all over, and I know I shouldn't, I know it's stupid, 'cause no one can hear me, but I start screaming.  
And I can't stop.  
I'm just screaming and screaming and all of a sudden, somehow, I can feel something is covering my face and I don't care if there's a black hole under me or not, I have to stand up, and thank God my foot hits something solid and I sit up on my bed covered in sweat, my throat raw.  
Tails is getting up off the floor.  
"Geez, Sonic, do you HAVE to get into bed with your sneakers on? 'Cause that really hurt."  
I fly across the bed and pull him into what is probably the biggest hug I've ever given the kid. He lets me for a minute.  
"Back off a little, Sonic, I can't feel my face."  
"Sorry, buddy. I...I'm just happy to see you."  
God, I'm so happy and relieved I'm almost crying.  
When did I become so sappy?  
Sonic, now you're being a jerk to yourself. Tails just pulled you out of a black hole. It's okay to be a bit on the mushy side for a bit.  
Tails wanted me to back off to free his arms, I guess, 'cause he doesn't pull away, just hugs me back.  
"Thanks, Tails. I was...I was really...I mean..."  
"I know. I'm sorry. But I couldn't wake you up."  
"I was playing the statue again?"  
"Yeah. It was really creepy, 'cause then you started sweating and I couldn't see why, and then you just started screaming, but your mouth was closed. It's really scary when you do that, by the way."  
I let go of him and sit back on the bed. I realize that I'm kind of shaking.  
I was really scared.  
Don't think I've ever been that scared.  
Even THINKING about being left lying down in the dark forever makes me shiver.  
"So what gave you the idea to smother me?"  
I know that sounds crass and ungrateful, but I'm still in panic mode and I have to calm down. I have to make stupid jokes or I'm not going to.  
"I just wanted to stop you from screaming. It...I never heard you scream before. I don't like it."  
"Well...I owe you one. And I don't think I'm ever gonna pay up."  
"That bad, huh?"  
He's looking at me, those big blue eyes of his glowing in the dark. He's so serious.  
"I think you'd better tell me right now what goes on when you do that."  
So I tell him, and he listens carefully like always, taking in everything and filing it away in his head, and I know that if I can just tell him everything it will be okay. He always helps me solve my problems.  
"It sounds kind of like you're being possessed."  
"Oh great."  
He laughs. It helps me relax a bit.  
"Y'know what that Hell Itself thingy said? 'bout stayin' away from me? I know what that's about. Don't do it."  
"Why not? I almost hurt Amy, I almost hurt you. Maybe I should."  
He shakes his head.  
"Don't. It's trying to keep you away from me. It knows that if anyone can get you out of this, I can."  
I feel really stupid for not figuring that out. Classic supervillain psych-out right there.  
He puts a hand on my shoulder and looks right into my eyes. I actually hate it when he does that. His eyes are way too intelligent. I feel like he can see right down into the bottom of me, into the places I hide from myself.  
"I'm here for you, Sonic. I'll help you fix this. Don't worry."  
The darkness and the worry and the stress are crushing me, I swear to God.  
"Could you hurry up about it? I'm turning into a completely different person here."  
This makes him laugh too.  
"I'll do my best!"  
I still feel crappy, so I guess I'll eat something and then go running again. I know I just spent the whole day doing that, but I really don't want to lie in the dark right now. I need to move.  
The more I think about it, the more I need to.


	8. Friends Again, Have to Keep Going

8.

Friends Again, Have to Keep Going

I'm exhausted.  
It's broad daylight.  
I don't know where I am.  
I've just been running and running and I don't know for how long.  
I forgot to eat before I left. So I feel like crap still.  
I don't even know how I've kept going this long.  
Guess I had more in me than even I thought I did.  
Sort of.  
I AM lying here on the ground tired out of my mind.  
It feels weird though.  
I have this weird feeling that I should keep running.  
I don't know if I can. My legs are shaking and they ache. They haven't done that in a long time, a really long time, maybe even since I started. I can't remember the last time running hurt my legs.  
I feel very...exposed. I am seriously so worn out if Eggman himself walked up and stepped on my head, I'm not sure I would care. 'Cause I've been trying to sleep forever now, and I can't because of the nagging feeling in the back of my head that's telling me to run even though I don't want to.  
I think if I try to run now I might fall apart.  
What's that noise?  
My phone's ringing?  
No one ever calls me.  
"H'lo?"  
My voice sounds like it's made of syrup. I don't mean it sounds sweet, I mean it sounds thick.  
Still sounds kind of deep and gravelly too. Probably 'cause I haven't talked in a while. Probably I set an all-time record of me not talking.  
"Where are you?"  
"Dunno."  
"That explains it."  
"Hm?"  
"I had to go through eight different satellites to find you."  
"Huh?"  
"Never mind. Let's just say you're pretty far away."  
"Mm."  
"You sound like you're dying."  
"Mm."  
"Were you sleeping?"  
"Can't sleep."  
"How long have you been running for?"  
"Don't know."  
"How long have you been where you are?"  
I can tell time by how the sun moves pretty good. I've had a lot of practice.  
"Three hours."  
"So you stopped three hours ago."  
"Guess so."  
"You've been running for four days."  
"Oh."  
Tails sighs. I know he's probably frustrated, and worried, since he's been looking for me for four days now and can't find me, but my thoughts are slogging through pudding and I can't get anything through my head.  
"Can you get back."  
"No."  
"No?"  
"Can't."  
"All right. Don't go anywhere. I'll track you on the GPS."  
"'kay."  
He pauses. I hear him breathing on the other end.  
"Just..."  
Just what?  
"I'll be right there."  
He hangs up.  
Thank God for Tails.  
I close my eyes a minute and let the phone drop.  
Then I stand up and start running.

When I get home it's dark. I'm starving so I take care of that first. I'm really tired of the gnawing in my stomach.  
I wonder how long it will take him to get back?  
I go into the workshop.  
He's got a bunch of tiny models on one of the tables.  
I sweep them on the floor with one hand. They crunch under my feet. His little, painstakingly built doo-dads useless on the floor.  
I go to the Tornado II.  
I never liked that he painted it blue. What does he think, it's my favourite colour or something?  
Nothing I can't handle.  
It's left in ruins behind me.  
There's something under a tarp.  
I don't even care what it is.  
I bust it without looking at it.  
Then I take the hard drive out of his laptop.  
It's a little harder to break. But it does.  
I look through his drawers. I know he's not stupid. I know he'll have a backup somewhere. He always does.  
I just have to find it.  
Or them, maybe.  
Wow.  
As clever as he's supposed to be, he keeps all his external drives in the same drawer.  
Oh well.  
Easier for me.  
After I break the last one I notice a pool of red on the floor.  
It's wet.  
It's coming off my hand.  
I cut myself?  
On what?  
My gaze travels to the broken piece of plastic that used to be his laptop. It has a red smear down one side.  
Suddenly I feel like I'm not really there anymore, like I'm inside the ceiling and looking down at the room, and then I wonder what the Hell happened.  
It looks like Eggman had a field day in Tails's workshop.  
But that's my blood on the laptop. Not Eggman's.  
I did this?  
I...  
I don't remember.  
But I do at the same time.  
I'm so confused.  
What have I done?  
That damn Hell Itself thing! It's doing this to me! I've just trashed everything Tails cares about. I just destroyed his whole life.  
I'm a jerk.  
Why did I come back here?  
How did I get here?  
How-  
The ground rushes up to meet me, and I'm hitting my face on the floor before I know what's happening. Of course I land in the blood on the floor. It's all down my face now. Gross.  
I'm back where I started, too weak to do anything. I don't understand.  
I just lie there on the floor. God I feel like shit. I'm shaking all over. I kind of just want to die so it will all go away, but I won't give up that easily either.  
I see his sneakers before I know he's there.  
"S-Sonic...?"  
I try to speak but I can't.  
"Wh...why have you..."  
I can't explain. I can't tell him I didn't mean it. My mouth and throat are stuck together and I can't even swallow.  
"Even...even the car?"  
What car? I didn't see a car.  
"Sonic...you look...different. I swear your fur is darker. Where have you been?"  
I can't answer. I want to answer him so bad but I can't do anything, can't even shake my head.  
I feel like I'm locked inside myself.  
And yet that nagging feeling of needing to run is pulsing inside my head, and it won't go away.  
He kneels down in front of me.  
The shock on his face hurts me.  
He looks like he doesn't recognize me.  
Then he backs away, covering his mouth.  
"You're not Sonic...who are you? What do you want?"  
It's me, bud. I swear.  
Please, bud. Help me. I need you to think of something, anything.  
"What have you done with Sonic!"  
Oh God help me, he's crying.  
I HATE it when he cries.  
Then I'm standing, and he's backing away, and I'm reaching for him but I don't know why or how, only I don't feel like it's me that's doing it but I'm only a passenger or something, and I'm pressing him to the wall.  
"I never did like you following me around, you little freak."  
His eyes are wide with fear. I hate myself right now but it's not me, and I don't know what to do, and I hope he knows that I can't stop.  
"Sonic...if that's you...please don't hurt me..."  
I fight for control.  
I never wanted to hear him say that to me.  
"Just let me go...I won't come back, I swear."  
If you don't come back, who's going to save me?  
I come back to myself, somehow, for just a minute, and I am instantly, totally weakened. It's all I can do to grab the bench behind me so I don't smash my head on the floor again.  
He knows it's not my fault and he reaches for me.  
"It's okay, Sonic...I'll figure something out."  
I shake my head.  
"Go, Tails. Just go. I don't wanna hurt you. An' I know if you stay, I won't be able to stop myself."  
He nods and I know he's going to come back anyway. That's just how we roll. We don't leave each other behind, no matter what.  
I feel the control leaving me and I wave my hand at him, hoping he understands it means he needs to get going. He does and starts to go, but I have to tell him.  
"Tails?"  
"Yeah?"  
"I'm sorry, bro."  
"That's okay, Sonic. It's only stuff, after all."  
He smiles sadly.  
"Though I wish you hadn't busted the car. That was supposed to be your birthday present."  
My birthday's not for six months. That's how you know a lot of work was going into it.  
"S-sorry."  
I'm gritting my teeth, trying not to let that dark thing take me over again. I know it's not going to work. I can see him hesitate, like he's got something to say but can't decide whether or not to say it.  
Then he runs up to me, hugs me fast and hard, and looks up at me.  
"I love you, big brother."  
Then he runs away.  
It's all I can do not to follow him.  
I want to smash his stupid gay face into the floor.


	9. Facing the Darkness

9.

Facing the Darkness

If I sit on the floor, and lock my arms real tight around my legs, put my head between my knees, and squeeze my eyes shut, I can focus enough to stay me.  
Everything hurts. There's something new that hurts though, something inside me, and I can't find it or explain how I can feel it. It just does.  
It's the result of myself tearing in two.  
I feel it. There's like a bad part of me, and it's trying to break free, but I can't let it. I know just how deadly a weapon I can be, and I'm not trying to brag or show off. It's a fact. I am built for fighting now. I am built for destruction.  
No.  
I am built for speed. I am speed.  
Destruction was never what I wanted.  
It keeps whispering things to me. It says it like I would say it. Like I would think it. I think these things and I think I'm the one thinking them, but I'm not.  
My head hurts from trying to hold it off.  
I have to sit tight until Tails comes back. He'll think of something. He will.  
He has to.  
Or I'm done.  
I can't fight it anymore.  
(Yes I can.)  
I'm not going to fight the darkness anymore.  
(Yes I am.)  
I'll give into it. That's the best way.  
(No it isn't. I won't give into it. I can't!)  
I'm going to let go.  
(N-)  
I'm standing in that darkness again. I don't know why I'm standing. I refused to stand. I said no. I said I wasn't going to give in.  
"You didn't really have a choice."  
"Stop what you're doing right now!"  
"You never had a choice."  
"Let me go!"  
"Did you really think your speed came without payment, little hedgehog? That you would be born with such power and it would not have consequences?"  
Sure. Like fighting evil 24/7 is not a consequence of power, not at all.  
"I made myself who I am. I'm fast because I want to be!"  
"That's not it. No organic structure in the universe can withstand what you place upon your body day after day."  
"I made myself strong. I WORKED for that."  
"No you didn't. I gave it to you. You are my weapon, my chosen one. You should feel proud."  
I feel sick.  
I have to deny it. It's the only way I can deal.  
"No, you're wrong! You and me have NOTHING in common."  
"How would you know if I were wrong or not? I am eternal. You are mere flesh."  
That's not creepy.  
(That was sarcasm)  
"I gave you your speed, Sonic. I made you my instrument. And what better instrument than one that everyone trusts? One that everyone thinks they know the sound of, and how to play it, and how it came to be?"  
"I'm not an instrument! I'm a hedgehog!"  
"Ah, but you are an instrument, my friend. And unfortunately for your friends, I am the only one left who knows how to play you."  
Tails. Tails, you gotta come back to me. You gotta help me.  
"I know you're banking on the little kitsune to bail you out of this, but there's no place he can go where you can't find him."  
"You can't make me hurt him! I won't do it!"  
"Oh yes, oh yes you will, my little hedgehog. You won't have a choice."  
And the lights snap back on and I'm grabbing my head and falling down because all of a sudden someone has socked me in the gut so hard I can't breathe, and I know there's no one there but it hurts like Hell.  
I look up and I see myself in the mirror, and I don't recognize my face at all.  
My fur IS darker. I don't know how it got that way.  
I have no eyes.  
There's this weird dark shimmering coming off me. I don't know what it is.  
Something like this has happened to me before.  
Don't blame me for not remembering, okay? A lot of shit happens to me. I can't remember it all. It's something about a genie I think, and some rings or something.  
The other me in the mirror is standing up, and it's looking at itself, and I feel terrible and dirty inside, and all these horrible things are mixing around inside my head but I can't tell what any of them are, and I feel dizzy and sick again.  
I close my eyes.

I didn't know I could fly.  
"This has all been orchestrated from the beginning, my little helper."  
Whatever. I don't care.  
"The World Rings were only the key to unlocking the true power within you."  
What the Hell is a World Ring? And how the Hell do you unlock things with a fucking Ring?  
"I granted you speed a long time ago, when you were an insignificant little animal in an insignificant little forest."  
As long as I can run, I don't give a damn.  
"I have a question for you, Sonic."  
"Shoot."  
"Do you have any friends?"  
I laugh. "Friends? What use are they? If I had friends they'd only slow me down. Why the Hell would I have friends?"  
That thing that keeps yammering in my ear laughs.  
"Excellent."  
O-kay then. Why does it matter whether I have friends or not?  
Obviously I don't. I mean, why would I bother when I know no one else in the world can fly at the speed of light?  
Thinking about flying reminds me of something. I don't know what. It's annoying, though. I don't want to be bothered by things that I can't remember.  
"There's someone I need you to find."  
"Fine."  
"His name is Miles Prower. His...friends call him... Tails."  
It waits. I guess it wants me to say something.  
"Okay."  
"He's a two-tailed kitsune. He lives in Emerald Hill. He was there this morning but he can't have gone far."  
"Sure."  
"Your reward will suffice?"  
"I'll do what you want if you let me go faster."  
That's all I care about. Going faster.  
That's kind of weird. I mean, I can fly at the speed of light and I want to go FASTER?  
I don't know. I just do. Why do I have to have a reason?  
I'm flying around and around the world. I want to run for a while.  
I'm looking for this kid. I don't know why he's so important, but the gain in speed will be worth the time I waste tracking him down.  
I guess I'm supposed to kill him.  
That's just as well.  
No one's gonna miss him anyway.

I'm running, not very fast, but fast enough that buildings and trees blow over and collapse in my wake, and people are torn from the ground.  
I smile.  
I like it.  
I like the power I have.  
I slow down a bit so I can watch the windows shatter, hear the people screaming and crying and asking Why, Sonic, why?, so I can watch the ground crack between my feet and hear the car horns and the sirens blare because of what I have done.  
It's amazing what you can do with just your own two feet.  
I know where the kid is. I don't know how I know, but I do. I'm taking my time. I'm destroying as much as possible. Things are crumbling around me. I raise my arms to the sky and laugh.  
I can do anything I want to.  
I can kill that man before he knows I was there.  
Can I?  
I think so.  
I think I'm that fast.  
Who am I kidding.  
Of COURSE I'm that fast!  
So I do it just to prove I can, I jump on him and crush his chest to the pavement, and then I'm gone. No one saw it, but everyone knows I did it. Just 'cause they know I'm there.  
But they can't prove it. I just wanted to prove it to myself.  
I laugh at them. Those little weak souls on the streets and in the buildings and under the ground, they all think that their little life has meaning. That they'll make it in the world if they get 1,000 hits on YouTube.  
What they don't know is there are millions of other people taking their 1,000 hits away from them.  
I remember hearing an advert on the radio. It was for some radio station's Facebook page. It strikes me now how pathetic their attempt to find 'Friends' is.  
There's that word again.  
'Friend'.  
It feels weird to think about it. As if I had friends once.  
But I am and always was this. Was me.  
I don't need friends.  
I don't like the way this is going and I grit my teeth and speed up.  
The kid is the key. I know he is.  
I'm going to kill him.


	10. Beneath the Cold White Stars

10.

Beneath the Cold White Stars

It's dark out.  
Good.  
I feel more at ease in the dark.  
Not that I need to feel at ease. I know I'm a million times more powerful than this little kid.  
There he is.  
Within half a second I have him pinned to the ground, I'm driving his puny little shoulders deep into the dirt, and he's screaming.  
It sounds so...satisfying, to know the power I have.  
"I'm going to kill you."  
"No, Sonic, no...please...just give me some more time...I can almost-"  
"Shut up. I don't care. I'm going to rid the world of you."  
"Why me?"  
I stop.  
"What the Hell are you talking about?"  
"Why me? Why are you targeting me? Aren't there enough people in the world that you don't have to come after me specifically?"  
He has a point.  
"Are you just gonna do what you're told?"  
Hm.  
If I kill him, I'm doing what I'm told.  
However, if I don't kill him, I'm doing what he wants and falling for his words.  
I can always kill him later.  
I stand up, taking him with me. I'm holding the scruffy fur on his chest. He's scared.  
Good.  
"Fine. I'm not going to kill you right now. But you're numbered, kid. I'm coming back for you. I hate to admit it, but you're right. I don't want to do what I'm told. But I don't want to let you live, either, for trying to change my mind like that."  
"'kay."  
I throw him on the ground and feel a rush of satisfaction when his nose starts to bleed.  
See ya around, kiddo.  
I'll be back.

I spend a few weeks or so just running around, causing Hell for the citizens of Mobius. I destroy their monuments, their homes, their parks, I kill them and slaughter them and drink their blood, and I separate mothers from their babies and fathers from their daughters.  
(No, I'm kidding about the blood part. That's gross, even for me)  
I'm kind of hungry, so I step into this random place and everyone runs out screaming. Even the people who work there.  
That's fine with me.  
I make myself a chili dog and take a bite.  
I'm on my knees on the floor, and I'm throwing up like there's no tomorrow, and I don't know why.  
When I manage to stop puking I stand up and take a long drink of water.  
(I could've been bologna if things had gone wrong)  
What the Hell?  
(So yeah, I don't eat meat anymore.)  
Like Hell I don't.  
But I can't.  
I can't bite into the damn hotdog.  
That's bullshit.  
What's that voice in my head and why won't it let me eat a stupid hotdog?  
It's not just the hotdog, either. It's all the meat in the place. I can't believe it. I'm no hippie wuss. Why the Hell can't I eat it?  
I have to settle for egg salad. Bleh. But it's the only thing they have that I can eat.  
I'm angry so I head outside to hurt some more people. That'll make me feel better, I know it.

A few hours later, I've practically blown a whole town to pieces and I still don't feel better. I gain no happiness in the destruction that blows in the wind behind me, useless shattered buildings and people lying on the ground screaming.  
Shut up already.  
You're giving me a headache.  
It's weird how something that made me happy is now annoying the Hell out of me.  
Then all of a sudden everything goes dark for a second, and I swear to God a wrecking ball just hit me in the side of the head. The pain is atrocious, but I grit my teeth and channel it into rage. I'm hitting the ground a lot faster than I want to, and of course I smack my head on the pavement, causing the world to darken for a minute. I snarl and push myself up off the ground. It's not easy, but the adrenaline is starting up now, coming in a surge that allows me to do far more than I can do without it. When I feel that blazing fire inside me I know I can do anything.  
I stand up, turn around.  
"I've always wanted to do that."  
"Knuckles."  
He smirks at me. Self-righteous bastard. He clocks me when I'm not looking and all of a sudden he's a tough guy? I'm gonna give him what he deserves, the prick.  
"You wanna fight like a girl, Knuckles, you keep hitting people when their backs are turned!"  
"Not my fault you weren't paying attention."  
I lunge at him, knocking him to the ground. He punches me in the face and I have to roll off of him, because my face is threatening to go numb and my nose is bleeding like crazy.  
"What's your excuse now, Sonic? You had me right where you wanted me."  
I dropkick him and he's down for the count.  
I have to think of how to get rid of him. Obviously he can't be left to his own devices. I can't have him bothering me.  
I think I'll just smash his face in.  
The kid is standing there. I don't know how he got there without me seeing him. He's not that fast.  
"Stop."  
"Make me."  
"I will."  
He doesn't move. Does he really think he can keep me from doing anything. Idiot kid. He wants to die too, I guess. I can kill him now, anyways, I've waited long enough.  
I step towards him.


	11. Impossible Solution

11.

Impossible Solution

A blinding light shoots out of nowhere, and it spears through me directly into my already pulsing headache. The light is so damn bright I see it just as well with my eyes closed.  
Pain is shooting through me, everywhere at once. It's so bad I want to crawl out of my skin. My blood may as well be on fire, because that's part of what I feel right now.  
I'm on the ground, I don't remember falling, but I must have, because on top of all the agony there's loose gravel and glass cutting into me from the parking garage I just totalled, and if this pain doesn't go away soon I'm just going to cut myself with the glass and be done with it. I can't even begin to explain how much this hurts. It's kind of like someone is peeling my skin off while roasting me on a spit or something while pulling off my nails and scraping my fur off with a rusty cheese grater.  
I think I might be screaming, but it's hard to tell because the pain is causing my heartbeat to pound in my ears, and if my throat is raw I wouldn't be able to feel it anyways. I can't even go with the glass-cutting plan, because the pain is so intense that I can't even move.  
"Sonic, I'm sorry. But it's the only thing I could think of."  
What's he talking about? And why would he cause me so much pain?  
"I had to counteract the negative energy with positive energy, and only the Chaos Emeralds provide enough."  
Then in a rush I remember, time standing still as images flash before my eyes.  
I'm in deep shit.  
I've been running around for God knows how long destroying things. I gave in. I lost.  
FML.  
Wait…the Chaos Emeralds?  
So he's cancelling the dark me by trying to force me to go super. But I can't do both at once. That's what all the pain is about. I'm trying to be Dark Sonic and Super Sonic at the same time.  
I wish I'd stayed in bed today. Or whenever this started. I don't remember anymore.  
Then all of a sudden the pain fades and I feel really peaceful. Even my headache is gone. I feel kind of like I'm floating. It feels really nice.  
"Sonic!"  
His voice comes at me from far away.  
I don't answer him. I kind of want to, but I kind of don't want to disturb this pleasantness with words.  
"Sonic, you have to listen!"  
I am listening, bud. I am listening.  
"You can't do what it says! You have to come back!"  
I don't know why he says I went somewhere. Far as I know I'm still balled up on the ground.  
I open my eyes.  
I see Hell Itself.  
I want to close them again but I've already been taken advantage of far too much. I need to think about this, and to outsmart it I need to see it.  
"You should have killed the pup when I told you to."  
"I don't take orders from nobody. I do what I want when I want."  
"We'll see about that."  
The world burns back into my vision, my eyes stinging as they fight to adjust to the shock.  
My body is sore and throbbing from the dual transformation I just tried to do, but I need to run. I need to run right now because if I don't I'm going to fall apart. I struggle to stand up. It begins to dawn on me that maybe it wasn't just the last few minutes that fucked me up. I faintly remember days and days of running, but I don't remember stopping to eat or sleep. I just remember breaking things.  
How in the Hell am I going to fix this mess?  
I'll run. That'll help. I'll be able to think.  
"Sonic."  
Tails is holding my arm. I didn't even realize it.  
"Don't."  
"Don't what, little bro?"  
"Don't go running."  
"But…why not?"  
He's looking me in the eye. Dead serious.  
"It's how it's controlling you. The more you run, the more control he has."  
"But I need to run. I have to. I'll go crazy."  
"You can't. You'll only make it worse."  
He doesn't understand. I can't not run. It's who I am, what I do. Especially now, with my body itching and trembling all over for the speed, the adrenaline, the wind.  
Then Knuckles plants his fist in my face and I go down hard.

When I wake up I don't know where I am. It's underground somewhere, 'cause it smells musty, and the room is all dirt.  
My face hurts. Damn that Knuckles. He didn't have to hit me that hard. Or in the face.  
For a second I think I can't stand because of how weak I've got to be. Then I notice that I'm cuffed and chained to the floor.  
Holy shit.  
They've taken me prisoner.  
I sit there in the semi-darkness, shocked. He's convinced about the running. He's so convinced he's chained me up in some fucking cave.  
He's right. It all makes sense.  
I sigh. I feel hopeless. I don't know what to do and I can't think. I'm too tired. And hungry. There's a gnawing emptiness where my stomach used to be.  
I lean back against the wall. I wonder how long I'm going to be here for.  
And if anyone will come to tell me anything.  
There's a shaft of light coming down from who knows where, and I just concentrate on it, to the point of blanking out everything else. I just focus on the light like it's gonna save me.  
So I don't notice when Tails appears 'til he pokes me in the arm.  
I look at him blearily. I almost don't recognize him, that's how hard I was concentrating on the light.  
"Hey Sonic."  
"Hey big guy."  
My words are slow. My tongue's not working right. It feels like it's grown like three sizes. I realize that I'm thirsty as fuck.  
"I'm sorry I have to do this."  
Hell, I don't even know what he's doing. I'm feeling like a POW right now.  
"I…I need water, Tails."  
He shakes his head. He looks like he's gonna cry.  
"I can't give you any. Not yet."  
Is he insane? Does he want me to go nuts?  
And what does he mean, not yet? 'Not yet' sounds like I'm gonna be here a long time.  
"I can't give you anything to eat either. Just try to sleep through it. Heaven knows you haven't been sleeping lately."  
"Wh-why?"  
Even that one word is slow and hard to say. Now that I know about it, my mouth feels as dry as a desert and I'm imagining how a glass of cold water would taste. Hell, how a warm glass would taste.  
"I can't risk you getting strong enough to run away, Sonic. I have to…to put you through this for your own safety. I don't want to do it. But I have to. To save you."  
Oh my God. He has to keep me on the brink of death so I can't run away. The poor kid. He's probably feeling worse than I am, and that's saying a lot.  
"I know that…um…Hell Itself… can give you strength when you're running low. But I'm hoping that it can't get make something from nothing, and force you to do something when you've got no energy and no strength."  
Makes sense.  
It's not going to be fun though.  
"I'll figure something out. I just don't know what yet."  
Probably I should get on that myself. Not like I'll have anything better to do.  
"'kay."  
"I'm sorry."  
I shake my head. It sends a rush of dizziness through my brain and a wave of nausea rises out of my stomach. I gag weakly and resolve not to do it again. I have to keep still, have to save what little I have for later. To help Tails.  
"Don' worry, k-kiddo."  
He smiles sadly at me and kneels down on the ground. It's not until he does that that I realize my vision has gone really blurry and I wasn't even looking at him all this time.  
He gives me a hug. I want to give him one back, to reassure him and tell him that everything's gonna be alright, but I can't. I can't even talk anymore.  
He leans back.  
"I can't feed you or give you anything to drink…but I can give you a blanket, you don't have to be cold. Do you want one?"  
After a long moment I nod. I'll take what I can get. It probably gets damn cold in here at night.  
"'kay."  
He runs off.  
I sit very still and listen to myself breathe.  
God, I hope he knows what he's doing. I hope he doesn't push me too far. I've never done anything like this before. I don't know if I can handle it.  
He comes back with the blanket off my bed, and a pillow. Good old Tails. Never does anything halfway.  
He helps me settle back against the wall (I use the word 'help' to make myself feel better; he really did everything) and then steps back.  
"I won't leave you alone all the time…mostly during the day. I'll come down and sleep here."  
I try to nod but can't. I've lost so much strength already. How much longer will I hold out?  
His footsteps fade as he leaves. I close my eyes. I'll take his advice, and try to sleep through it.


	12. The Edge

12.

The Edge

It's hard.  
At first, because of how tired I was, sleep came easily. It doesn't anymore. Now I mostly just stare dully at the wall in a sort of daze, with my head pounding and my tongue filling the inside of my mouth as I daydream about swimming in a lake of milk that changes to water when I feel like it, and on the shore is my Uncle Chuck at his chilidog stand making the best chilidogs in the world. It's funny how the one thing I absolutely swore off is the one thing I want when I have nothing. Thinking of food and water makes my stomach hurt, but if I concentrate on trying to feel the wetness of the water/milk and try to smell the chilidogs, I don't feel it so much. When I do manage to sleep I have bizarre dreams, mostly of walking food and flying drinks, and occasionally Hell Itself getting destroyed some stupid way or another, like getting stuck to a giant piece of duct tape.  
But I swear my head is going to explode. The pounding never stops, and it never fades either.  
I don't know how much time has passed. But at some time or another Tails is there and I'm awake enough to know about it. He gives me a piece of orange and a mouthful of water. My stomach doesn't like it and tries to protest, but I'm pretty good at not puking by now. And besides, if I throw up now I'll probably keel over. I don't have the energy to burp, let alone vomit.  
He sits down beside me. I hope I can stay un-hazy enough to appreciate it.  
"I'm trying, Sonic. I'm trying."  
That's all he says.  
He just sits there with his arms around his knees.  
My vision blurs and I blur with it.

The days turn into one endless, long afternoon, where I'm trying to take a nap in the shade but the sun keeps getting in my eyes. Tails brings me water and an orange wedge every once in a while, but it's getting harder and harder to keep it down. I don't want to tell him that. I want to be strong enough to make it through, like he is.  
I'm trying, Tails. I'm trying.  
When I'm awake enough to swallow what he brings I feel the worst feeling of all: that gnawing ache all over that is my body destroying itself to keep me alive. I'm not sure why it bothers. Why I bother. But I don't think that often. Just when the ache turns into a stabbing pain.  
Somehow he keeps me on the brink of starvation without letting me go over. I don't know how he knows to let me have something. But I'm glad he does.  
When the haziness changes into periods of hyperawareness it gets harder. Sometimes I am so aware of how much torture my body is enduring that it's all I can do not to scream. The light hurts my eyes, my head throbs, and my body is on fire. I'm glad I'm under this blanket. I don't wanna know what I look like now.  
During one of those times Knuckles comes instead of Tails. Why does he have to be so damn red?  
He's unchaining me. Not that the shackles are of any use. I've lost so much weight they stopped fitting weeks ago. Or maybe days. I don't know how long I've been here.  
"We can getcha back to normal now."  
I try not to be mortified when Knuckles picks me up.  
"Tails figured something out."  
I try to ask what but my tongue won't move.  
"Fill ya in later. I gotta get you to the hospital now."  
I'm that far gone?

After a while in the hospital I feel a lot better. Thanks to the shit going into my arm, I can sleep and my headache is gone. So far as I can tell Knuckles doesn't leave me. He's always there when I wake up.  
On the day they let me eat applesauce and milk I decide that if action needs to be taken, I can take it, and I ask Knuckles where Tails is.  
"Dr. Eggman's got him."  
I choke on the applesauce. I hope no one takes this as a sign I'm not strong enough to eat, and therefore not strong enough to go rampaging into a fortress stuffed dungeons to ramparts with homicidal robots if the situation calls for it.  
"Dr. Eggman knew how to get rid of it. The Hell Itself doodad. But he took Tails as payment."  
"Fuck."  
"That's what she said." Knuckles attempts a smile but I don't bite. Not with Tails in the clutches of our enemy.  
"I've gotta get out of here."  
"Not for a good few days, Sonic. It's better to rest up, take a while, than to rush out there only to collapse and get taken prisoner yourself."  
He has a point.  
Somehow I manage to stay put another week, even though everything screams for me to go save Tails pretty much 24 hours a day. Even when I'm sleeping I feel the urgency, and because of it I don't sleep very well. But on the morning of the 8th day I pull on my sneakers and run out the door before I can realize that I shouldn't be doing it, I'm not ready, I'm not strong enough and I know it, but I can't wait any longer and I'll deal with it later. I've been starved and dehydrated and overworked. I can do this.  
Still, the general shittiness catches up with me when I have to stop at Eggman's base. I grab onto the doorway to stop myself from falling. I'm dizzy and I have to grit my teeth and think very hard about how a calm stomach feels so that I don't lose it. That would be the most embarrassing thing ever, to lose my lunch on Eggman's doorstep. He'd be laughing his ass off every time he saw me. He'd probably review that security tape over and over again when he needed a laugh.  
(All this thinking about what Eggman would do is not helping)  
I pull myself together and then realize I'm gonna have to do a spin to get through the door. That's gonna suck.  
It sucks so bad I actually have to sit down on the floor and put my head between my knees. He's gonna taunt me like crazy when I get there. Wherever there is.  
A lot of stopping and starting later I find Tails. He's sitting in this cell with a blank look on his face. He doesn't seem to know I'm there.  
"Sonic."  
Busted.  
(Please let there be no killer robots)  
"Well, if it isn't ol' Egghead."  
"Stop right there, Sonic. I know very well you're not up to a fight."  
So he let me come here. That explains why there was nothing in my way, considering how long it took me to get here because of my weakness.  
(I hate that word)  
"Why are you here then?"  
"I sealed the entity inside Tails."  
I just stare at him like he's a loony (which of course he is).  
"Why in the Hell did you do that?"  
"That was the only way to get rid of it. Now you must take Miles into the Void and release the entity there."  
"There's no way out of the Void!"  
"I'll be helping you."  
"I don't believe you."  
He straightens impressively and adjusts his glasses.  
"I don't want a super-powered Dark Sonic running around. I have as much reason to get rid of the entity as you do. Now do as I say or your friend is doomed. He cannot hold such evil for long. It's a testament to how pure he is that he was able to contain it for this period of time."  
Oh Tails.  
What you do for me.  
"Fine. I'll do it."  
I want to threaten him. I want to tell him he'll pay if this doesn't work. But he holds all the cards, while I'm the old maid. I have to take myself and my empty little brother into the Void and hope we make it out. And I also have to convince Hell Itself to spend eternity in the Void while I'm at it.  
That sounds like fun.  
I think we'll do it again when this is all over.  
Not.  
"All right, Dr. Eggman. We'll do it your way. Send us in."  
I try not to think about why Dr. Eggman knows how to get into the Void in the first place.  
Or why he bothered figuring it out.  
He opens Tails's cell and spares me the embarrassment of trying to lug both our asses to the 'gate', as he calls it. Tails just stands there like a puppet.  
Dr. Eggman steps behind his computer and a massive energy shield goes up. I guess he doesn't wanna come along for the ride.  
"See ya in 20, Eggster."  
"Farewell, Sonic."  
He opens the gate and we're drawn into the gaping black hole, and too late I realize something:  
He has no reason to bring us back out.


	13. The Void

13.

The Void

It's different from before.  
It's dark and cold this time.  
I don't understand. Usually the Void is just this strange place where there are roads in random places and the air is pink (because there is no sky), where you can walk upside down and if you're lucky you can fly. It was never a pleasant place, but now, with my demon-possessed little brother in tow, it has become a nightmare.  
I don't know what to do.  
I push him in front of me and hope that there's some solid ground around here he can sit on so I can look him in the eye.  
There is, for some whacked-out reason, and I push him down and I somehow find the same ground and kneel down in front of him, all advice-giving-like, and look into his eyes as best I can. I say this because it's really dim here, the only light some kind of weird glowiness coming from God knows where, and I can barely see my own hand in front of my face (yes, I know that's a cliche right there but I used it, so sue me).  
I manage to focus on his face, and I don't like what I see.  
He's not in there.  
He's dead inside.  
This is all my fault too.  
Fuck.  
"Little bro? You in there at all, man?"  
He twitches.  
That's a good sign.  
Or maybe a bad sign.  
Either he's reacting to me or he's about to have a seizure. Not sure which is better at the moment to tell you the truth. If he has a seizure maybe Hell Itself will decide it needs to bail, pronto.  
He twitches a bit more and then goes still again.  
His eyes fade to matte black.  
Then they start to glow red.  
Oh my God.  
What the Hell is going on here.  
Then he starts lifting off the ground all limp-like, and I realize what's happening.  
When I go bad, I change into Dark Sonic.  
I forgot that Tails had a bad side. It's an easy thing to forget. It's not like it ever comes out. In fact, it's never happened before, but he used to dream about it.  
When he goes bad, we get…  
…the Tails Doll.  
Who has the wonderful power of STEALING YOUR SOUL.  
Great.  
We just gave Hell its greatest weapon, a soul reaper.  
Yee-haw, let's do this again tomorrow, folks.  
I back away from him slowly and he just hangs there with his head lolling nastily to one side, his eyes blank but somehow full of menace at the same time.  
Oh shit. Oh shit.  
See, the thing with the Tails Doll is that you can beat it up all you want, but apart from doing Tails a lot of damage, it doesn't care. It's a doll and doesn't feel pain, it doesn't get angry, and it doesn't give up. It just tries forever and ever to eat your soul.  
Boy oh boy am I in for it.  
Suddenly the redness fades back to matte black, and now the Void is completely dark.  
Locked in a dark room with the Tails Doll.  
Alright, I'll admit it.  
I'm scared shitless.  
I don't even know how to defeat the Tails Doll. Nobody ever thought it would come to that.  
I can't hit him…I can't strangle him…I could try to tear the stitches, but wouldn't that kill Tails? What am I supposed to do?  
My heart is pounding in my throat and making it hard to breathe. I'm trying to be quiet but I think my breathing is as loud as a diesel engine right now.  
Then all of a sudden there's a blinding flash of red from behind me and my arm explodes in excruciating pain. I scream and swear and grab at my arm but I don't even know what I'm grabbing for, only that I HAVE to get it off because it hurts so bad and God I swear it's going RIGHT THROUGH MY ARM-  
The pain moves to my hand and I realize the Tails Doll is biting me, it's hiding little sharp teeth in its mouth and its eyes are glowing so red and my hand is gushing blood like there's no tomorrow. For some reason it lets go and floats backwards a little.  
It just looks at me with my blood dripping down its face.  
Oh, I get it. It wants to gloat.  
Well, it gave me two seconds to do something. So what do I do?  
What I do best, of course.  
I run.  
I know it's not going to work out, that before long I'll wear out and that it probably knows this, but I have to get away from it long enough to thrash out a plan. My heart is spasming and I can barely breathe, but I keep going as best I can, falling a lot and trying hard not to slow down, and I'm trying so hard to think and run at the same time that it's a minute before I realize I didn't get up the last time, I'm still lying on the ground. I don't know why it's just hovering over me and not attacking. I'm shark bait right now, totally weakened. I wasn't ready and I left anyways.  
But I remember why I left when I was so completely drained, and I try harder to think of a way to save him. With more effort than I believed I had left I start to heave myself up, but all of a sudden I'm hit with a massive wall of vertigo and can't hold back the urge to gag. Thankfully whatever was left in my stomach when I got here has been all used up by now, because I really don't want to fall into a pile of grossness right now. It still sucks because apparently my brain is convinced there's SOMETHING in there that HAS to come out, because I'm overtaken with a wave of retching that lasts for so long that I have about have half a second to breathe in between heaves. When it's over my stomach has pulled itself into a rock-hard ball of pain and I'm involuntarily bent over, my hands wrapped around my head. I still have the vertigo but it's a bit easier, maybe because I'm completely still. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I'm obviously unable to handle this right now. When I taste blood I realize why I'm so dizzy and why it's not going away.  
My left arm and hand are both gushing blood, fast. There's a long scrape down my arm and a chunk missing from the side of my hand. I have to look away. It's too gross. I'm not used to this. I beat up robots. They don't bleed. I've never been hurt like this before. It's going to get my soul no matter what I do. I can't reason with it, and I'm in no shape to get up.  
Oh God.  
I'm THIS close to crying right now.  
I failed.  
I came when I wasn't ready. I should have waited. Now we're both in the Void, and we're not leaving until Tails is himself again, which I can't make happen. I'm a wreck and Tails is pretty much dead and I failed us both. Goddamn. What a time to fuck up, Sonic. Way to go. I know I sound like a pansy right now but I feel like I'm dead. My vision is starting to go a bit fuzzy around the edges and I realize that I'm getting wet. I must be bleeding way more than I thought.  
Knowing I won't be moving any more after I do it, I turn onto my back. My quills there are limp and fold easily. Not a good sign.  
Hopefully I can still talk.  
"Listen. You win. I give up. I can't get out of this. Take me and let Tails go. It's me you wanted in the first place. He's no good to you. He's not fast or strong or anything like I am. Take me back and let him go."  
The Tails Doll bobs in front of me. It's acting a bit weird(er). It never bobbed in Tails's dreams, only floated. It's almost like it's trying to nod its head, to point at something. But that's ridiculous, and the odds of me turning my head thataway and doing anything about anything in that general direction are almost as good as my odds of getting a PHD in nuclear physics.  
Which is to say, extremely against me.  
It's shaking strangely, as if by an angry parent.  
What the-  
Suddenly I manage to have a bright idea.  
He's fighting it.  
I feel this absurd surge of hope. We may yet get out of this after all.  
Somehow.  
I have to figure out what the bobbing means.  
He's definitely trying to get me to notice something, but I can't for the life of me figure it out. He must know I can't go anywhere, so it has to be nearby. My head hurts though so I'm not able to think like I need to. Lack of blood is making my brain feel like its pulsing.  
I have only a few minutes. I have to save him so he can save me. He has to heal me soon or I'll die.  
I try to phrase my question in my head a few different ways. It's a trick he taught me. He says it helps see the problem as a room with a lot of windows instead of just one door.  
What is he pointing at?  
Is he trying to point at anything?  
What does he want me to see?  
Then I'm thinking of the Tails Doll he described to me and I realize there's something missing.  
I can't see the antenna with the jewel on it.  
I have to find it, and do what with it? I guess I could try pulling it off. That's about all I can think off. It's not like a set of reins or anything. We just guessed it found souls to steal or something.  
I take a deep breath, blink a few times to try and clear my vision (it doesn't work), and I relax totally. I need everything I've got just to accomplish the simple task of lifting my arm high enough to grab it. That's all I need to do. My fingers will hook around it and gravity will hopefully do the rest.  
I hold my breath and go for it.  
It gets three inches off the ground and then a stabbing pain slashes through it and it falls.  
Of course my idiot self would try to use my LEFT hand, my primary but also USELESS hand, and waste what little energy I've got.  
If I could I would smash my face into a wall right about now.  
So I take another breath, hold it, and narrow my focus into just lifting my arm.  
Yes, it was my right arm this time.  
I'm guessing the object I ended up with was the jewel, since all of a sudden this feeling of terrible coldness shot up my arm, and it went numb on the spot. The Tails Doll is shuddering horribly now, and with what manages to look like a huge effort from this emotionless, lifeless thing, it jerks backward and there's an awful ripping sound. My arm drops with a thud that I don't feel and since my hand is numb I have to hope that we succeeded.  
There's a horrible scream, and now I swear my ears are bleeding (oh that's good, take ALL the blood I've got left), and there's another thud and something warm grabs my useless left arm and a massive wave of pain stabs into it. It's so intense and so sudden I yell and hope I'm imagining the wetness in the corners of my eyes. My vision blurs completely and the last thing I see is a bright flash of orange and a heat that's waaayyy too close before my body gives up and shock sets in.


	14. Out of the Fire

14.

Out of the Fire

My mouth is so dry.

I have to blink like eighty times to clear my vision, and in these forty seconds or so my other senses come back.  
They're all telling me there's a massive fire here, but that doesn't make sense.

Hell, this is the Void. It doesn't usually make sense.

When I can see I don't understand. The air above me is made of bright orange flame.

I somehow manage to sit up, and I see that I'm sitting in like a dome of fire. It's so hot. I don't understand how I can breathe right now. I try to ignore the shakiness in my hand as I go to touch it. (Yes, I know that sounds stupid, but this is the Void. Maybe it's only tissue paper or something).

"Don't. It will burn you."

Then I turn my head, and he's sitting there in a little ball with his tails wrapped around him, and he's crying. He's probably been crying the whole time I was out. Which could have been hours for all I know.

I look at my arm, and all that's left of the fatal injury is a faint scar. Same with my hand.  
"Are you okay?"  
He doesn't say anything, doesn't move.  
"Tails, I...I'm so sorry."  
He sniffs.  
"There's nothing to be sorry for. None of this was your fault."  
He's crying harder now though.  
"What's wrong, bud?"  
He just shakes his head and buries his face in his knees. He raises his head again and says, "Did you feel anything when you were...when it..."  
"Yeah," I say.  
"I didn't. I didn't feel anything. I can't tell you, Sonic, how it feels...to not care about anything...to be so lonely it hurts..."  
I hate that feeling. I do know what he's talking about.  
"When I w...was trying to kill you, it wasn't because I wanted you dead...I wanted the life your soul would give me. I've never felt so lonely in my entire life."  
"Hey, gimme a hand and come over here."  
With what looks like a lot of effort he unravels himself and comes to sit next to me. His face is tense with concentration. I lift my arm enough to bring it 'round his shoulders.  
"Where did all this fire come from?"  
"I made it."  
"Uh...how?"  
"I'm kitsune, Sonic. I can make fire, remember?"  
Ah, one of those weird random things he can do. I never thought that the ability to make random fire would ever come in handy.  
"Why are you making it?"  
"I have to hold the entity back somehow. If it comes for us again...I don't think either of us could fight it, Sonic."  
He breathes in and it catches in his throat.  
"I'm really scared. I don't know where we are or how we got here, or how we're going to get out, or IF we're gonna get out..."  
He's shaking pretty hard and it's obvious there's no way he can stop crying to save his life (not that I care if he cries, he might just feel like a baby, that's all).  
"We're in the Void, buddy. Dr. Eggman sent us here. He's supposed to get us out...but I don't have any idea how he's gonna do that."  
"Sonic, I can't maintain this fire forever. I'm gonna wear out. There's no essence here for me to draw from. There's only so much I can take from myself before I start to...start to..."  
"Ah geez bud, it'll be alright. You're not gonna die, kiddo. Eggman will come through. He always does."  
He laughs a little. "I have to admit he does."  
"See? It'll be fine."  
We just sit there quietly for a while, trying to save energy I guess. My vision's blurring again. I must have passed out because I feel a jolt of consciousness when Tails elbows me in the side and says, "Sonic."  
"Mm."  
"I have to let the shield down now."  
"kay."  
"I'm pretty sure it's killing you."  
"Cool."  
"You're not really awake, are you."  
"'course I am."  
But I'm not, not until the heat vanishes suddenly and the wave of cold air washes over me. The sudden change of temperature makes me feel sick. I can't open my eyes. The light is too different after spending all that time under flickering orange.  
"Took you long enough."  
Eggman?  
"You didn't have to sit there, you know. I've been monitoring you the whole time."  
I manage to squint at him. He's standing there, imperious and self-righteous, as usual.  
"Well, why didn't you bring us out then?"  
"I couldn't. Miles's shield blocked all of my efforts."  
I'm poised to make a smart remark about him not trying very hard, but with a heroic effort manage to hold my tongue. He did just save our lives, after all.  
Tails stands up and looks at Eggman, uselessly wiping at his face.  
"Thank you," he says.  
Eggman nods, eyes locked on Tails. "I'm sorry you had to go through that," he says quietly, out of the blue. Tails jumps a little and looks at him like he's not sure who he is. He decides to just nod back.  
It's then that I know how much respect Dr. Eggman has for Tails. That he would say that to him, especially in front of me, says a lot.  
I can't even imagine what would be possible if Tails and Dr. Eggman worked together.  
I shake my head a little and manage to open my eyes. But God it hurts.  
Dr. Eggman looks at me.  
Dude.  
I feel like he's studying me, like those eyeglasses are both microscopes he's examining me under. I'm not sure what to do under this sort of stare so I just stare back. I find myself wondering why he would bring us back at all. So I ask him.  
"Others have found their way out of the Void before," he says. He turns around, starts to walk away, then stops a moment and says over his shoulder:  
"I may think differently from you, but I am not evil."  
I just sit there and gape.  
"How the Hell is he not evil? How is roboticizing entire populations not evil?"  
"He could kill them."  
"Isn't living in a robotic Hell worse than death?"  
"Not necessarily," says Tails. "Yes, he takes animals and turns them into robotic slaves, but they don't remember any of it afterward. And it's not permanent. They can be returned to normal at any time." He stops talking and I know he's thinking about his dad, who was roboticized before he was born and then returned to normal some years later.  
So I guess I can kind of see why he would think Dr. Eggman's not evil.  
But I'm not really convinced.  
He had to have had a reason to let us out.

I have a while to go before I'm fully back to normal. After a couple of days I can get up and do stuff, but it tires me out pretty fast. I spend a lot more time sleeping than I'd like to admit. When I'm awake I don't do much of anything but eat or have a shower. I'm always starving. And what do you think was the first thing I had to eat when we got back? Chili dogs. I guess I wasn't cut out for the vegetarian thing. When I think of all the future chili dogs I was going to give up I wonder how I got started on that in the first place.  
I don't know what Tails spends his time doing. He doesn't mention it and so I decide not to ask. When he wants to tell me he will.  
He asked me not to leave the house.  
I was kind of confused and asked him why.  
"I just…need to know you're there," he said.  
I still didn't understand until I was jolted out of sleep that night, sitting straight up with my quills prickling all over.  
Tails was screaming and crying.  
I tried shaking him but he didn't wake up. Nada when I called him. So I took a page from his book and shoved a pillow on his face.  
He socked me in the face and I almost went down cold. Not kidding. First night we're back to normal from this little adventure, so I'm not at my best.  
He was breathing hard and shaking pretty bad. I think he was in a cold sweat too.  
"Oh my God," he said. "Oh my God."  
"What's going on?" I asked in my best caring-big-brother voice (I wasn't pretending either, I was just trying to be comforting).  
He whipped his head around as if he forgot I was there, then threw himself on me and started bawling.  
Oh. Shit.  
He told me he dreamed of being the Tails Doll again.  
And that's all I needed to know.  
He's getting better. The first couple nights he would dream like that two or three times a night, which sucked a lot for him (me too, but I was sleeping all day besides so not so much). I could tell he wanted to stop going to bed at all, but I mentioned that it was a bad idea because we didn't want him falling asleep God knew where and waking up wondering where he was and getting even more scared. So he didn't stop but the nightmares didn't either. I don't want to think about how scared he must be all the time, of turning around and seeing Hell Itself waiting to possess him, or trying to fall asleep while struggling to forget what he's going to be dreaming about.  
So when I'm feeling about 70% I get up at a reasonable hour and go outside. I've got a familiar itch in my legs, a subtle excitement in my brain, signals that I'm ready to go, ready to feel the wind and the power and the freedom again.  
But I don't go.  
The sensations rise to fever pitch, and I just stand there.  
I didn't tell Tails I was going to leave.  
(No.  
That's not it.)  
He doesn't know, he'll get scared.  
(Why don't you go tell him then? Because that's not the real reason.)  
No, it's not.  
I stand there for a long, long time.  
I want to run so bad it hurts. It feels kind of like being so excited for something you literally can't stand it, you have to do something to burn it off and get those waves out of your stomach. It's so strong I want to puke.  
But I still don't go.  
It's hard to just stand there through it, but it fades, and I'm left feeling empty, like I missed out on something good.  
Which I did.  
It gets dark and then I go in the house.  
How can I be sure that's just my brain's reaction to anticipating a good run?  
How will I know that it's me and not…something else?  
I close the front door and feel a jolt of panic. It's pitch black, I can't see.  
I'm able to grab the door handle behind me. It pushes the panic back. My heart's beating too fast and I can't do anything about that. Can't deny how the dark room made me feel.  
Looks like we're both afraid of the dark.

Epilogue

Such an interesting specimen.  
It has completely contaminated the entire Void. I wonder how the other begins trapped within it are feeling at the moment.  
I know It is observing me just as I am observing It. So much untapped potential…the only dilemma lies within how to control it…  
Ah well.  
I'll think of something.  
I finger my moustache thoughtfully.  
Sonic became Dark Sonic…  
Tails became the Tails Doll…  
I wonder what would happen to me?  
I go to the filing cabinet and riffle through it, looking for a file with plans I had long ago abandoned as ridiculous and possibly fatal to my person.  
I think the time has come to go over them once more.  
I cannot risk my own self, body and soul such as it is.  
But I could risk a duplicate.  
Ah. The cloning machine.  
A long shot, I know. And perhaps impossible.  
But perhaps not.  
IF I manage to complete the cloning machine…  
IF it operates properly…  
IF it does not go mad…  
IF Hell Itself possesses it…  
IF something happens…  
IF I have it possess me…  
IF I figure out how to separate my two selves…  
An outrageous plan. But by no means the most outrageous.  
I gather my files and head down to the prototype lab.  
Time to go to work.


End file.
